2012.03.1302:37:00UTC+00BoJ Announces Expansion Of New Growth Fund

The Bank of Japan on Tuesday decided to enhance its Growth-Supporting Funding Facility to support economic growth and tackle deflation.

The central bank said that the total amount of loans available through the fund-provisioning measure will increase by JPY 2 trillion to JPY 5.5 trillion.

The bank said it will introduce special rules for a new arrangement of loans worth JPY 500 billion for small-lot investments and loans that had not been deemed eligible in the main rules for the Growth-Supporting Funding Facility.

The bank will also put in place special rules for US dollar-denominated loan program worth JPY 1 trillion. The new loans will be made using the dollar reserves held by the central bank.

Under the Growth-Supporting Funding Facility, which was introduced in June 2010, the bank decided to extend the deadline for applications for new loans by two years to March 31, 2014 and to increase the total amount of loans by JPY 500 billion to JPY 3.5 trillion.